Customer Reviews

Leap of Faith

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Leap of Faith is a great read. Danielle Steel has written a wonderful book. The main character, Marie-Ange, is likeable from page one. The reader is guaranteed to feel her joy and pain as she feels them. Marie-Ange is faced with tragedy at the young age of 11. She is forced to leave her home country and live with a relative who doesn't really show any emotion except hate, of everyone and everything. I literally had tears in my eyes as I read of the horrible things that happened to Marie-Ange when she went to live with her aunt. Hurrah for Billy. He was definitely a blessing from the first meeting between him and Marie-Ange.

This book reminded me of the earlier Danielle Steel books. It seems as if some of her more recent works were not quite as emotional and interesting as her older works. Leap of Faith is an excellent book. It has a good story line and moves at a good pace. The reader doesn't have time to get bored. I felt like I couldn't read this book fast enough. Even though it is a short 202 pages it is packed full of all the ingredients that make a DS book good to read. Definitely a book that you'll want to read now and again in a few months or years. This is a lasting DS novel. :)

I have read almost every book that Danielle Steel has written and I must say, this time she should have pushed herself away from the typewritter and taken a break. She has written the same story over and over. Her books used to have much more depth to them. Marie is the same ignorant girl that has been the main character in her more recent books. I was never able to determine what time period this was supposed to take place in but I have to wonder where the people were that were supposed to watch over this poor little orphan back in France. If you want real good Danielle Steel you would be better served to read No Greater Love or Kalidescope. Come on Danielle, your true fans deserve better.

Danielle Steel's "Leap of Faith" is definitely worth reading. Steel does a fantastic job of character development and moving the story along. Even by reading the first few pages of the book, I felt like I knew Marie-Ange. She is a strong and noble character. We have all gone through trials and tribulations during our lifetime, and we are easily able to empathize with her.

Danielle Steel wrote this book very well. It is definitely worth reading if you have a few hours to spare!

It took me approximately 70 minutes to read Leap of Faith by Danielle Steel. It might have taken five or ten minutes less if I hadn't been reading in bed, if the light was better, if my neck hadn't kept getting stiff so that I had to shift position every few minutes.

After a chapter or two, I thought perhaps I should read two Steel books, on the chance I'd inadvertently picked up one that had been published by accident. But then after four or five chapters, I decided I couldn't read another if my life depended on it.

By the time I got to the last page, this was my thought: I can't review this book. There's nothing to review. I just spent 70 minutes of my life reading nothing. I turned the light out and went to sleep.

By morning, my thinking had altered. For one thing, I'd taken this review on willingly. In fact, I'd actually thought it was a good idea, although at that point I'd never read Steel, so what did I know? Besides, there was nothing ready to put in its place.

So here goes.

The plot: Eleven-year-old Marie-Ange, blue-eyed and golden-curled, lives in France. She is adored by her handsome parents and gently teased but much loved by her older brother. She spends her days in the apple orchard, day-dreaming, climbing trees, dirtying her Paris-bought frocks. Life is idyllic. But the monster is at the door. You can hear him breathing, smell his breath.

Marie-Ange waves goodbye as her parents and her brother John drive off, pathetically unaware that she is also waving goodbye to the life she's always known. Orphaned, she is sent off to live in Iowa with a cold, unfeeling aunt who forces early-morning barn chores and provides meager meals. Hungry, badly-dressed, and love-starved, Marie-Ange retains her sweetness. She makes one friend, freckle-faced, red-haired Billy, who adores her.

At 18, Marie-Ange inherits 30 million dollars. She kisses Billy good-bye and flies off to Paris, where she meets the new owner of her former Chateau, a count. They marry, have two children, he spends her money. Then he sets the house on fire and tries to burn her up in it. His plan fails and the gendarmes cart him away.

Marie-Ange calls Billy.

End of plot.

This is what I know about Danielle Steel:

She has sold close to 500 million copies of the approximately 50 to 60 books she's written. Perhaps with the exception of Harold Bloom, everyone recognizes her name. It's hard not to recognize it because it's everywhere. All of which means there's something going on here. I'm just having trouble figuring out what it is. I saw her interviewed once, and she seems like a perfectly intelligent, well-spoken woman. I think she has lots of children. Because of her extreme writing success, she's wealthy. I know she's experienced the same vagaries of life as the rest of us because the interview centered on her son's depression and death.

This is what I know about writing:

Writing is evocation. Writing is showing, not telling. Writing is rendering. Writing is trying your darndest to get your reader to disappear the page the words are printed on and enter the life beyond that page.

According to what I know about writing, Steel has it all wrong. She has it inside out, upside down, backwards, and all a jumble. Nothing is evoked. She never shows, only tells. She doesn't render. And she doesn't try one little bit to ever make you forget you're reading a book. Her plot is simplistic and unbelievable; her characters are barely one-dimensional; and her use of language is so clichéd that I found myself playing a game. I could always, not almost always, but always predict the words that were to finish a sentence before I turned the page and actually read them.

So how has Danielle Steel become one of the most popular and widely read authors on the planet?

Perhaps it has something to do with My Antonia. Bear with me.

I read Willa Cather's My Antonia for the first time in Junior High School. I liked it. At least I liked it until I got near the end. Then I didn't like it. Antonia had been the sort of girl I wanted to be. Pretty. Vivacious. Outgoing. She loved pretty clothes and dancing. She was attractive to boys. Especially attractive to Jim. But then the story went wrong. Jim and Antonia went separate ways. And after twenty years had passed and Jim and Antonia were finally reunited, she'd become old before her time, "...a stalwart, brown woman, flat-chested, her curly brown hair a little grizzled." And practically toothless, to boot.

I was crushed. I hated what she'd become. It ruined the book for me. Why would anyone write such a miserable ending?

But I was only 14.

I re-read My Antonia in my thirties. It had the same ending. But this time I was moved not by what she'd lost, but by what she'd kept and what she'd gained. A husband and children she loved and who loved her. The same hunger for life despite the fact she'd lived hard and poor. All her values in the right place. Antonia had triumphed. Life had beaten her, but only marginally. Only on the outside.

I suspect that in Danielle Steel's version, Jim and Antonia would have ended up together after a hundred pages apart and after an attempted murder or two. Oh, and Antonia would have been as lovely at 40 as she was at 20. Plus she would have inherited 30 or 40 million dollars somewhere along the line.

At 14, I would have been so happy with that ending.

But I'm not 14 anymore, so here's what I think:

Danielle Steel should preface all her books with Once Upon a Time, just so there's no confusion in anyone's mind about what it is she's doing.

She shouldn't dictate her books. It's too easy to forget that you've already said the same thing seven or eight times.

She should avoid telephone conversations because people can't see each other, and you have to write stupid things like: "So will I," he said, smiling, and looking more boyish than ever, although she couldn't see him.

She should avoid having a wife say about a husband who has just tried to burn her alive: "...But he scared the hell out of me the way he spent money.

Once upon a time there was a woman named Danielle Steel who burst onto the "literary" scene. She wrote about the stuff which dreams are made of, about fairytale people with lots of money and power. She also wrote about the not so wealthy and powerful who by the end of her books always seemed to have a happily ever after ending. And she wrote about famous cities and fairytale places and her books always dripped with designer names, famous hotels and restaurants and great descriptions of the clothes and jewelry worn by the main characters. Steel wrote about single women, divorced men and women, abused women, women orphaned by the Titanic, women who covered wars and women who had to start all over after WWII or the Russian Revolution. She wrote so many books so quickly that her loyal readers could look forward to at least two meaty books a year from her. And I was one of her most loyal readers who just had to buy and read each of her books as soon as they hit the shelves. Sad to say but now after almost 30 years of reading Steel I must admit that I think twice before picking up one of her books. It's not that some of the plots of her books are all that bad for a fast read, although her writing which was never great is still the same, its just that it seems to be same old, same old. Change the names and the places and you think you've been there before. And to be very honest, I continue to hope that I will enjoy one of Steel's newer books as much as Season of Passion, Legacy of Silence, The Promise or Ghost.

With that said I picked up Leap of Faith and read it in a matter of an hour during a recent plane ride. Once again I was looking forward to a good read but Leap of Faith, again fell short. And if I thought same old, same old about Steel's books, she did try introducing a new element to her books, suspense, but even this attempt didn't do much to the enjoyment of my read.

Once again in Leap of Faith, we have a young woman living an ideal life with her parents and brother in France. Suddenly she is orphaned, her beloved home is sold and she is forced to live with an aunt on a farm in the middle of the United States. The aunt is straight out of Cinderella, forcing the young girl to live a meager life with hardly encouragement or love. But when the she turns 21, the young woman learns that she is a millionaire leaving readers to ask why her aunt never used any of this money for her. Immediately the young woman leaves for Paris to find out what happened to her beloved home all these years later. What happens next is most improbable and for sure there is some happily ever after at the end of the book, but by this time one doesn't seem to care too much what happens.

This is a short read which once again left me wondering if Steel will write another one as enjoyable as her older titles. And if you still must read this book, I suggest doing it either on a plane or at the beach when you're a captive audience.

Sign me STILL WAITING -----

THIS BOOK WAS A VERY EASY READ. I FINISHED IT IN ABOUT THREE HOURS. I WAS DISAPPOINTED IN THE STORYLINE IT WAS SO PREDICTABLE. THE ONLY SURPRISE WAS HOW MARIE FOUND OUT ABOUT HER HUSBAND. I WISH I HAD GONE TO THE LIBRARY AND GOT THE BOOK INSTEAD OF PAYING [MONEY] FOR IT. I AM SLOWLY BECOMING A DANIELLE STEEL UNFAN. HER LAST FEW BOOKS FOR ME HAVE LEFT SOMETHING TO BE DESIRED.

After the disappointment of LONE EAGLE, I nearly gave up on Danielle Steel, but when I finished LEAP OF FAITH, it gave me a LEAP OF FAITH for her buying her upcoming books.

Marie-Ange Hawkins had a princess life in a chateau in France, but an event one day took her royal-like life away from her, becoming a Cinderella story. She is taken to the Iowa, where her great grandmother lives and takes Marie-Ange in. There Marie-Ange befriends Billy Parker, a red-headed, freckled boy; their friendship grows into one like that of brothers and sisters. Years later, she receives a chance to return to France, leaving behind her terrible farm-life-and her best friend. But she is lucky to find another man who befriends her like Billy did...

Hmm... Danielle Steel's short novels tend to be good, in my opinion, and this is no exception.

Every so often, Steel comes out with a compact read that flows smoothly from one chapter to another; Leap of Faith is one of them. Even if you're tired of Steel's fairy-tale characters and overlapping storylines, you'll be finished with this story before you realize it. Marie is sweet, the plot has SOME depth to it, and the ending is predictable, however;it is one continuous monologue that you'll devour during an afternoon at the beach!

I use to be a huge Danielle Steel fan, adoring her books such as The Ring, Message from Nam, Wanderlust, etc. I stopped reading her books after reading The Ranch. The worst book I ever read. I thought I'd give her one more try by reading Leap of Faith. She's clearly only in it for the money now - cranking out garbage. Leap of Faith was too predictable with shallow, uninteresting characters. I won't be wasting my time on her books again.

This is a Cinderella story about Marie Ange Hawkins, a child whose life changes and is brought to live in reduced circumstances, then who goes back to a life of riches in France. It reminded me of some of V.C. Andrews stories where an orphan finds she is really part of a wealthy family and must suddenly totally change her lifestyle and live with a different family. This story is a page turner since events move very fast and readers will want to know what happens next. What weakened the plot was Marie Ange's total cluelessness about the wealthy Count. If she couldn't put two and two together: Where were her attorneys to guide her? She seemed to just go to France, with her millions, totally vulnerable and no banker or lawyer in sight--except when it was almost too late. Marie Ange also lived by her wits when living with her aunt--wouldn't that take the edge off her naivete? The ending hinted that it would be a happy one, but nothing definite was stated--readers can draw their own conclusions. If I could have worked up more sympathy for a clueless and rather foolish young woman, I might have given this additional stars.